Consistency the challenge for Arrows

Consistency remains a challenge for Lamontville Golden Arrows with a large contingent of young players in their squad, said coach Clinton Larsen after they lost at the weekend to Ajax Cape Town.
“We are always looking for consistency but I always knew it would be difficult, we are not a team blessed with 10-12 experienced players like other squads,” said Larsen, who took over in December and has seen his side win away at Free State Stars but also lose at home to Chippa United and on Friday go down at the Cape Town Stadium.
“We’ve got a young group and when we need depth we have to call on our Diski team. We don’t have the depth that others teams do but what it does, is give young players opportunity.
“We already given at least three kids an opportunity to play in the last few weeks to play and that augers well for the future but we’ve still got to, at present, get the results. It makes for a fine balancing act but I don’t think we are too far off getting it right,” Larsen added.
Recent debutants for Arrows are Kwanele Hlongwane, who came on for the first time in Friday night’s 1-0 loss to Ajax, and midfielder Thabo Molefe.
“With the inclusion of Musa Bilankulu and Mahlatse Makudubela I think we’ll be a lot stronger from now.”
Bilankulu joined Arrows last week after his contract was abruptly cancelled at Bloemfontein Celtic while Makudubela was another surprise free transfer after being released by Platinum Stars.
“I was very surprised that Bilankulu was let go by Celtic but I jumped at the opportunity to take him. I’ve worked with him and he showed his versatility once again by playing for us in the middle of the park. He’s a natural central defender but with the injury to (Nkanyiso) Cele , we had to plug the gap in midfield and I thought he (Bilankulu) didn’t do too bad, especially after having not played for a few weeks at his previous team. I think he’ll bring that needed experience and stability to the team; he also has a very calming effect on the youngsters which is good for us and I’m sure, moving forward, he’ll influence the group in a very positive way,” added the Arrows coach.
The Durban-based club remain inside the top eight places in the Premier Soccer League standings despite now picking up only one point out of a possible nine in their last three league encounters.